It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
and the book:
Boyfriends, Burritos & an Ocean of Trouble (Real Life)
Zondervan (April 20, 2010)
Nancy Rue has written over 100 books for girls, is the editor of the Faithgirlz Bible, and is a popular speaker and radio guest with her expertise in tween and teen issues. She and husband Jim have raised a daughter of their own and now live in Tennessee.
Visit the author's website.
Product Details:
List Price: $9.99
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (April 20, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310714850
ISBN-13: 978-0310714859
MY THOUGHTS:
The bright yellow cover…the title…Boyfriends, Burritos & an
Nancy Rue apparently knows teens very well, because she creates believable teen characters with realistic problems. Bryn O’Conner is going through a very difficult time, and the arrival of her grandmother only bodes more difficulty in her mind. However, God is working in this young girl’s life, even amid very dark circumstances, and Bryn discovers that transformation can occur in your life in very unexpected, very miraculous ways. Apparently, a huge transformation has already occurred in her grandmother’s life, and Bryn learns – albeit against her will at first – that she has an ally, a friend and a prayer-warrior in the last place on earth she expected to find it.
This is going to be a very, very important read for teens, folks. It is a story that deals with difficult, real life issues, but it also introduces God’s voice in a way that will appeal to teens and that will draw them further into the series. It really is a brilliant technique.
Now, as a parent, this was a very emotionally difficult read! I don’t know how teen boys become the heinous thing that Preston Oliver represents in this story, but I wanted to string him and his parents up from the highest tree available and make them feel pain. I just don’t know how that happens – how parents care so little for their children that they allow them to act as they wish – and then defend them even when they are dangerously wrong. I’ve seen this happen in real life, and Nancy Rue nails this phenomenon dead on in the book. But it is a reality that terrifies me as a parent, and really makes my blood boil as I experienced Bryn’s pain. Children should never be allowed to become the mess that Oliver and his crowd represent. The fact that they do – well, it breaks my heart.
All that said – Boyfriends, Burritos & and
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I love Nancy Rue and think this is a phenomenal book!
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Kim. As I said in my email, you've made my day! Nancy Rue
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